The Law of Survival
by Yoda's Padawan
Summary: After waking up, EchoWave decides to set off to hunt again. Her prey? X. But when she discovers the lone Dinobot fighting the Predacons, she decides to help. Ful summary inside. Part Two of my 'Huntress and the Hunted' series.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: RG don't own Transformers, Beast Wars, or anything 'cept Xion, Felicis, EchoWave and the plot. So...if you want to use any of those, ask!**

RG: Now dat that disclaimer's over, I just wanted to tell you all that I just -know- I put Dinobot OOC towards the end of this chapter. He's...a bit more helpful then he usually would...anywho, enjoy the chapter. Oh, I forgot to say, the title was Super Metal Sonic's idea 'cause my mind was warped from waaaaaaaaaaaay too much Transformers and getting up at 6 AM. So, thanks:D

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**Summary:** After waking up, EchoWave decides to set off to hunt again. Her prey? X. But when she discovers the lone Dinobot fighting the Predacons, she decides to help. But will one femme be enough to save the warrior from his fate? Will her grudge against X stop her from helping Dinobot?

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_A young aqua colored sparkling laughed as she and her brother, a black sparkling, ran through their backyard, playing chase. The femme sparkling, Felicis, jumped over one of her toys and looked over her shoulder at her brother. "You can't catch me, Xion!" She giggled, turning her head back around, "You can't catch me! You can't catch me!"_

"_I can and I will, sis!" Xion laughed, running faster. He smiled at his sister and then stopped when their mother, a pink femme, called them into the house, saying their father was home. "Time out, Fe! Mom wants us…sounds like…daddy's home!"_

_Felicis stopped immediately. Her optics brightened. "Daddy's home? Why didn't you say so, Xion? Let's go!" She giggled, turning around. The sparkling grabbed her brother's hand and started to pull him inside the house they shared with their parents. Every day, right around that time, their father, who was a scientist working on a project, would come home and tell them about his day. Felicis, being the big daddy's girl she was, would sit in his lap and listen._

_Xion laughed as he was pulled. The sparkling's red optics twinkled as he hurried behind his sister to go see their father. However, the sight that greeted their innocent optics wasn't a happy one. Instead of their father, they saw a strange, huge red mech standing in the doorway. In his hand, he had their father, who's chest had been ripped wide open and his spark stolen. His body was horribly mangled and he had a look of horror mixed with pain on his face. Felicis took one look at her father's body. And screamed._

_Their mother turned to look at them. She yelled a warning and told them to run right before the new mech threw their father aside and launched himself at her. Felicis watched with horror as her mother was pinned under the mech and he started to rip her chest apart; he was having fun and actually enjoying their mother's terror. Before Felicis could scream for her mother, Xion leapt into action. He grabbed the sparkling and threw her onto his back, holding on tightly. Once that was done, he ran like his life depended on it, which it did. Both his and his little sister's life depended on it._

_Xion panted as he ran even faster upon hearing the mech's heavy footsteps getting closer. He looked behind him and yelped, seeing the red mech. He firmly, yet gently held onto his sister, who was sobbing her heart out for her lost parents. The black sparkling managed to loose the mech as he went for another grown bot and let out a sigh, but also a curse. Xion looked around and then turned, heading for the gates. He swallowed. "Don't worry, Felicis. He won't hurt you. I won't let him. I promise I'll protect you. Always."_

"_B-B-But mommy!" Felicis sobbed, clutching her brother's neck, "And d-daddy! He…he killed them, Xi! Both of them!" The sparkling's green optics clicked off, but hot tears continued to run down her face. She whimpered and looked around after a minute, turning on her optics. "Where are we g-going, X-Xi?"_

"_Away, Fe. Away." Xion answered as he ran. He looked around and then hurried out of the gate. "Listen, I'm going to hide you, alright? I won't let him hurt you. I won't let anyone hurt you, you here me? I'm going to put you in our hiding spot and then I'm going to go and see if I can find a map or something that'll help us get away from here, okay?" He asked, looking around. He ran over to the walls of Omicron and then over to a pole. There, the sparkling kicked and the wall raised a bit. "Hide in here until I get back, okay?"_

_Felicis whimpered as Xion pried her off his back. She looked up at him and then curled up into a ball in her hiding place as the wall shut in front of her so only a tiny bit of light shone through the crack. The sparkling wrapped her arms around her legs and then waited as she saw her brother's shadow walk away._

_Felicis had been waiting for about ten cycles when a scream was heard. She shot up. The sparkling had almost fallen asleep; crying had worn her out so much. The sparkling's optics widened. She knew that voice. "Xion!" Felicis whimpered, standing up. She went to pound on the door, but stopped when her brother's screaming suddenly had a gurgling sound to it. The aqua sparkling whimpered, backing up against the wall. Her optics widened with fear. Xion's cries suddenly stopped._

_A cruel, sick and unfeeling laugh came from outside the sparkling's hiding spot. A shadow fell across the opening and red, mech fluid covered fingers slid under the opening. Just as they were about to rip the door off, they pulled back suddenly. The shadow retreated quickly as a voice yelled, "X!!" Felicis whimpered and curled into a ball. After a few cycles of silence, the sparkling stood up and then kicked the wall. The opening moved up slowly and Felicis ran out. The sparkling screamed upon seeing her brother's beaten and battered form._

_Felicis ran over to Xion and grabbed his arm, shaking him. "Xion! Xion, get up!" She whimpered, shaking him. She looked at him chest, which had been ripped open, and then saw his fading blue spark. "A dying ember…" She whispered, reaching into his chest. Her hand gently wrapped around it and then pulled it out of his body. "Hang on, Xi…" She whispered, "Daddy taught me…" The sparkling pulled out a box and then tucked her brother's spark into the spot that looked like it was supposed to hold a power source. _

_The sparkling then stood up and held the box close and then ran away, sobbing. She ran into the walls and gasped. The entire colony was leveled. Transformer's bodies were scattered around the ground and were either melted, torn to pieces or mangled beyond recognition. Felicis let out a sob as she walked through the smoking city, trying to get the image of the Transformer's pain filled faces out of her mind. She looked around and then backed up as her optics rested on a familiar femme. Her mother. "Mommy!" She cried, but then ran into a huge mech. The sparkling screamed._

"_Shh! Shh!" The mech whispered, bending down. He picked her up. "Easy…no one's going to hurt you, little one…I promise." He said, walking towards a ship. "Let's get you somewhere safe, okay? You did not need to see this…"_

_Felicis held onto the mech and sobbed as he loaded her into the ship. After a bit, he placed her down on a chair. "Listen to me, little one." He instructed, "If anyone asks, I am your father, understand? You snuck aboard and wondered into here, but you were NOT a member of this colony nor were you there during the attack, understand?" He asked._

_Felicis whimpered, but nodded. She hugged the box that held her brother's spark as the mech above her cleaned the mech fluid and Energon off her hands and face. "What's going to happen to me?" The sparkling asked, looking up at him with big, frightened optics. _

"_You'll live with me, little one." The mech whispered, "Don't worry. You'll be fine."_

_Felicis nodded again. She looked over and saw a huge blue mech with ruby optics being carried into the ship. His face was contorted in anger and furry, but his body was wrecked. He was alive. The sparkling watched him being laid down and then walked over to him, looking at the mech. "…Hello…" She said, looking at him._

_The mech groaned and turned his head. His ruby optics met hers. "Who 're you?" He asked, then his optics widened, "How did you get here? Were you in the colony?"_

_Felicis went to say yes, but stopped. She shook her head. "No…I'm that man's daughter. I snuck aboard…I saw what happened…are you alright?" She whimpered the last part, "My name's Felicis. What's yours?"_

"_Depth Charge, kid." The mech sighed before turning off his optics, ending the conversation._

EchoWave gasped as she jolted out of stasis lock. The femme looked around, panting as she did so, and then started to panic. It felt like she was back on Omicron, hiding and waiting for her big brother to come and save her. After a minute, however, she started to calm down when she realized she wasn't hiding from Protoform X on Omicron anymore, but in a CR Chamber. The femme let out a sigh and leaned against the back wall of the CR Chamber, letting her mind drift back to the distant memories of life before the attack on Omicron as she shut off her optics.

However, her thoughts were soon interrupted when the CR Chamber beeped a message and opened up. EchoWave clicked on her aqua colored optics and then stood up strait. She walked out of the Chamber and then glanced up at the Transformers that had stopped doing what they were doing to look up at her. One of them had even stopped playing a card game they were playing to look up. That one she recognized as Rattrap. Echo looked herself over. Before, she didn't have a chance to question why she looked the way she did, but, now that the battle was over, she only had two questions. "What the hell are you and what the hell am I?"

The biggest one, a brown mech with an ape alternate mode, walked forwards. He introduced himself as Optimus Prime, but before he could go any farther, Echo interrupted him.

"So you're Primal, eh? Been lookin' for you." EchoWave said, leaning against the now closed CR Chamber. "Well, to be frank, not you really, more like some of your…'cargo' you were carrying. That's what I came here for."

Primal blinked. "So you followed us to still something we had on the _Axalon_? Not very Maximal of you, is it?" He asked, looking at the dolphin femme. The blinked again, confused, when Echo let out a bitter laugh. "What is it?"

"I didn't come after you to 'steal' anything you were going to dump off somewhere barren anyways." Echo answered. She narrowed her optics and crossed her arms. "I came here for Protoform X."

There was a slight, uncomfortable pause, and then the youngest looking, a cheetah by the name of Cheetor, spoke up. "What?" He blinked, "You followed us for…Rampage? Why?" The cat asked, surprised, as he looked at the femme as if she had lost her mind.

"If ya ask me," Rattrap said as he stood up, cutting off his computer poker game, "I dink da kid's crazy." He explained, "She dinks she can take on and kill Rampage by herself. She attacked him without reason or dinkin'."

That was all EchoWave had to hear. She growled and grabbed Rattrap's shoulders before pinning him against the wall of the CR Chamber. The femme got into the rat's face and let out a low growl. "Listen to me an' listen to me good, rat!" She snarled, "I am after X because of what he did to my friends and family! He killed everyone, leaving me and one other alive. I barely managed to save my brother and then he took him from me again just yesterday! I'm going to say this simply so your tiny rat brain can understand. I. Am. After. X. To. Get. My. Re. Venge. For. My. Colony." The dolphin then dropped the tiny mech onto his aft and snarled, "So _don't _you _ever _call me crazy, got it? I have a reason for everything I do!"

Rattrap blinked as the femme told her story. Or most of it, rather. Once he was dropped onto his aft, the mech stared up at her for a second and then scurried over to Rhinox, standing up behind him and hiding behind him. Everyone glanced at the pissed femme for a minute, blinking for a bit before EchoWave huffed and started to leave. A hand on her shoulder stopped her.

Dinobot let out a growl, "Don't leave with such anger." He warned the young femme.

EchoWave turned her head and looked Dinobot in the eye. She sighed and then relaxed her gaze, "Do you want me to apologize to the rat? Because, Primus help me, I ain't gonna apologize to _him_, sorry." She said bluntly, looking at the raptor, and smiled softly.

Dinobot snorted, "I could care less whether or not you apologize to the vermin or not," He smirked, ":But you shouldn't be so angry at the other Maximals when you're only angry at Rampage…at the rat."

EchoWave opened her mouth to reply, but shut it. She sighed and then nodded, smiling a bit. For some reason, she respected the raptor greatly even though she had only been in battle with him once and it was for a short period of time. Maybe it was because something about him reminded the femme of her lost father. Yes. That was it. "Alright, I won't stay angry at them…well, the rat I will, but the others…" The blue and white femme trailed off and then walked over to the exit. She stopped before leaving and turned her head to looked at him, "Oh, and Primal? If you need me, my comm. lines are open." She added before walking out of the Axalon.

Everyone watched the femme leave and, for some reason, didn't bother to try to stop her. After a bit of silence, Rhinox cleared his vocals and then spoke up, "Perhaps while I'm researching the transwarp cell explosion's effects, I could look through the young girl's past…" The rhino offered, looking at the Transmetal Optimus

"No need, old friend…" Primal sighed, looking at the mech. He sighed again and then looked at the other Maximals, "I believe I've already figured out what EchoWave meant…"

"Erm…" Rattrap blinked, "Mind tellin' us whatcha mean, fearless leader? Ya know, kinda clue us in?" He asked, trying to figure out what the ape knew.

Primal sighed and then started to walk away towards his office. He had some things to think about. The mech put his hands behind his back and entered his office, sighing again as he did.

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RG: Yep...put him out of character. Ah well. Anyways, this is around, if not at, the begining of "Code of Hero". I need some help finding the episode or at least the script or something of it that'll give me the quotes 'cause I don't know the episode by heart and I can't find my tape I made of it...so...help? 

EchoWave: Ahem...

RG: Right. Also, ya read, now review.


	2. Battle

**Disclaimer: I don't own nothin' 'cept EchoWave.**

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EchoWave huffed as she flew through the sky in her glide mode, which looked a bit like her spaceship. She looked down at the sandy beach and then frowned as the wind started to cease blowing. She changed her mode into her beast mode and then let out a dolphin cry, back flipping in the air, before diving into the ice cold sea water. The bottle nosed dolphin let out an echo cry and waited for it to come back to her. Once it did, the femme frowned. X wasn't anywhere nearby. Echo let out a sigh and then started to swim out to sea for a bit.

After swimming for a few cycles, EchoWave let out yet another echolocation cry. When it came back to her, she froze in place. Her optics widened, but then narrowed in anger. She let out a threatening growl and looked around, swimming forwards slowly. The water mammal went to let out another echo cry, but let out a yell of pain instead when a huge claw clamped down on her tail. Echo turned around to see what had her, only to come face to face with her prey. The huntress then snapped at Rampage, getting his antenna in her mouth. She smirked as the crab let out a yell of pain.

Rampage growled in anger and pain and then let go of the dolphin's tail. Both he and she transformed into robot mode and glared at each other. Rampage looked EchoWave over, taking in her every emotion as he did so, each one at a time. Anger. Hate. A need…for vengeance. Pain, but only of the emotional kind. The crabbot frowned. No fear. Not a single trickle of fear in her entire body. Didn't she know who he was? Didn't this delicate looking femme know that he was _the _Protoform X? The bot that enjoyed nothing more than to rip Transformer's very sparks out and eat them? Rampage blinked as a new emotion surfaced. Excitement.

At the same time Rampage was taking in her emotions, EchoWave had been smiling and reaching for her laser. As she did that, many thoughts and emotions ran through her mind. Anger. She glared at him and felt all the anger she had kept hidden in her come out. She let out a growl and narrowed her optics. Hate. The femme hated him. She absolutely hated that maniac with every single fiber of her being. Need for vengeance. Here he was. That crabbot was here, in front of her, and waiting for her to take her shot. She would finally get revenge for her colony. Pain. She would finally get revenge for Xion, her big brother…and her protector. Right then and there, she would get her revenge. The femme glared at Rampage as her mind returned to the battle. Her spark fluttered with excitement as she fired at him suddenly.

For some reason, Rampage had been so into trying to figure out her other emotions, he had pushed her excitement away and, therefore, had not been expecting to be shot at. He took the shot to his chest and hiss with pain, his mind snapping back to the battlefield. He whipped out his cannon and then shot at the dolphin, the wounds in his chest already starting to heal. The crabbot launched himself at her, putting his cannon away, and then grabbed EchoWave.

The two grappled with each other for a minute before Rampage pinned EchoWave against the sea floor under him. The mech went to grab her fin, but yelled and grabbed the sides of his head as Echo let out an echo screech attack. He quickly reached out and backhanded her, shutting the femme up. He then grabbed her wrists with one hand and pinned her webbed hands above her head. The crab laughed evily as he flexed his the crab legs that were on his back, "Well, well, little one, I must say I am surprised…"

EchoWave growled, aqua optics flashing with anger, as she struggled to free herself from her captor's grasp. She narrowed her optics and growled with anger again. "What's so surprising, X?" The femme practically spat his name. She absolutely hated him right then.

Rampage chuckled darkly, grinning. He caressed EchoWave's face, making the young femme shudder, and said, "That I remember you now…" He purred, "The little sparkling...that was hiding…I tokk care of your brother and then started to go for you, but my old playmate interrupted me…" He smiled at the look of shock on her face, "Yess…you rememver me, don't yiu? Oh…how could you not? You hid while I ripped your brother apart and left him there…that's why I didn't kill you…I was going to let you see him, feed off your emotions and then killed you, however…" He trailed off and then sighed.

EchoWave snarled, "You knew I was there? You left me alive so you could FEED off of my sorrow and other emotions and then kill me?! Why didn't you just rip it open and kill me?! I mean, it's not like Depth Charge could hurt you that badly while you killed me!" She growled. That mech left her brother alive and in so much pain just so he could see how she would react to it?! He really was as twisted as they came…

Rampage seemed shocked, which was very rare. "You…would have died back then? If I gave you a choice right now…would you let me kill you?" He asked. He was a bit confused. He knew she had been hunting him, like his playmate, so why was she willing to give up so easily? Hmm…this one was going to be difficult to read…but it would be so much fun to figure her out…

"You killed them all! I had no reason to live!" EchoWave growled, narrowing her optics as she looked at him, "But now…I do…I have a reason to live…and that would be…my revenge!" She said before letting out another echo scream.

Rampage yelled and clutched the sides of his head, surprised by the sudden attack. He flew back and hit an underwater cliff's wall. EchoWave growled and swam so she was floating in front of him, "You killed them all!" She yelled again, "I sat by and watched last time, but this time…I shall kill you and may you pay!!!" She screamed the last part in an echolocation scream.

Rampage growled and then kicked off of the wall, heading towards the femme. He lunged at her, but EchoWave jumped over him, using the water to her advantage, and plunged the fins on her gloves into his back. She kicked him away and narrowed her optics. Rampage turned around to face her as his wounds heals, "You don't know the full truth, do you, sparkling?" He hissed, but smiled darkly, "You don't know what your father really did for a living, do you?"

"What…What do you mean?" EchoWave asked, her aqua optics softening slightly. Not for Rampage, no, but for her father. "What…what did he do? Why should I believe you?" She growled the last question.

"He tortured me. He was one of the 'scientists' that worked on me. To him, I was nothing more than a 'project'…it was he who gave me my empath abilities…he who forced me to use them…" Rampage explained, emerald optics flashing darkly. He then glared at her, "And I'll make you pay for his mistakes…" He whipped out his cannon and fired at her.

EchoWave yelped as she was blasted backwards. She flew out of the shallow water and hit the beach. The femme shook her head, trying to clear it. She groaned. It wasn't true…her father wasn't a monster…wasn't a part of his murderer's creation…right? As a wave came up and licked her body, EchoWave sat up. Her optics widened and she shot up, ready for Rampage to come out of the water to continue their battle, but he never came. Clenching her fists, she growled, "You'll pay, Rampage…by Primus, you'll pay…they didn't deserve to die…they didn't deserve to be killed that way! No matter what my father did…he didn't deserve that…" She whispered that last part to herself.

Her comm. ringing brought the young femme back into the present. She touched it and Primal's voice came through. He sounded worried. _EchoWave, head to the valley in Grid Alpha Delta, understand? Dinobot's taking on most of the Predacons on at once. We're going to meet him as fast as we can, but, since you're the closest to him, he needs-_

"Cut it, Primal, I get it. I'm on my way." EchoWave said in a snappy tone. She transformed into glide mode and then flew into the air. While she seemed unconcerned for the raptor, she was actually very worried about him. Something about him was…familiar…maybe it was the fact that he reminded her so much of her late father. Yeah…that was it…

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RG: Sorry tis a short chapter. Next one shall have the valley in it. I swear! Anywho, read and review.


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